Only Drug Testing Can Save Boxing

The fallout

Boxing is still feeling the effects from the cancellation of the biggest payday in its history, where unbeaten Mayweather's proposed fight with Filipino superstar Pacquiao was annulled because of a drug-testing dispute.

According to Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, blood testing is seen as invasive by some fighters, and there are actual risks of bruising and possibly nicking a vein. Pacquiao felt that blood testing 21 days before the fight was acceptable, but not the 14 days that Mayweather was proposing.

Dr. Margaret Goodman, the chief ringside physician for the state of Nevada until 2005, says that testing for human growth hormones, performance-enhancing drugs, steroids, and erythropoietin (which are used in blood doping) are best detected if blood and urine samples are taken moments before and after a fight.

According to Victor Conte, a physician for the United States Olympic sprinter team, both Mayweather and Pacquiao should be suspected of using drugs because of their accomplishments in the sport. Both began their campaigns at 106 pounds when they were 16 years old, and both have fought at 147 pounds, with Mayweather fighting at junior middleweight for Oscar De La Hoya’s title in May 2007. Conte is very suspicious of Manny Pacquiao because of stories coming out of his training camp that describe Manny training five to six hours nonstop. As for Mayweather, his hiatus from boxing is also suspicious, says Conte, because athletes have been known to take performance-enhancing drugs during their off-seasons, which allows them to maintain gains even when they cycle off the drugs.

The consequences are greater

According to ESPN’s color commentator Teddy Atlas, the time for drug testing has come in boxing. “Look, someone using PEDs [performance-enhancing drugs] in baseball, you hit more home runs; in football, you tackle better. In boxing, you’re throwing fists at another man’s head, and PEDs put that opponent in much more danger, and boxing is a dangerous sport to begin with,” says Atlas.

boxing needs drug-testing for credibility

At the moment, fighters get tested before a fight and after a fight, one test for performance-enhancing drugs and one for recreational drugs. The problem with this system is that these athletes have medical advisors who understand that all you have to do is taper off the different species of drugs. The public knows this, and that’s why boxing is losing credibility for not implementing a strong drug-testing procedure with strict rules for those who test positive.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has taken steps toward a better regimen by instituting random drug testing, but fighters are given an advance notice of up to 48 hours before the tests.

A more effective drug-testing program in boxing would go a long way in ensuring a level playing field for all major bouts and could restore confidence in an already weakened sport.